If you don't want to have your car stolen, avoid these 10 cities

Despite the rate of thefts falling in past years due to better technology and increased awareness, some areas are still not great places to park your ride.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau compiled the top 10 cities for vehicle theft by comparing the population of a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), with FBI crime statistics and census data.

Compiling the data was no easy task, said Frank Scafidi, Director of Public Affairs for the bureau. Because MSA’s often have multiple towns within the area, NICB staff had to comb through each one to find component police forces, and then compute a total number of thefts for the MSA in a given year.

Each area’s rate of theft was determined by dividing the total number of car thefts (in 2014) by the estimated population of the area. The resulting decimal was then multiplied by a factor of 100,000 so that the rate corresponds to thefts per 100,000 people.

As states go, California tops the list. San Francisco alone was blemished by almost 30,000 vehicle thefts in 2014. Cities in the Golden State make up seven of the top 10.

The best place to avoid having your car stolen? State College, Pennsylvania had just 34 vehicle thefts in 2014. Impressive, for a place with over 95,000 students and their cars.

10. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

2014 thefts: 10,531
Rate: 539.26

9. Fresno, CA

2014 thefts: 5,260
Rate: 544.53

8. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

2014 thefts: 20,268
Rate: 552.04

7. Vallejo-Fairfield, CA

2014 thefts: 2,414
Rate: 559.92

6. Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA

2014 thefts: 3,032

Rate: 560.49

5. Modesto, CA

2014 thefts: 3,047
Rate: 572.75

4. Odessa, TX

2014 thefts: 886

Rate:575.68

3. Stockton-Lodi, CA

2014 thefts: 4,245
Rate: 593.21

2. Bakersfield, CA

2014 thefts: 5,211
Rate: 595.82

1. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA

2014 thefts: 29,093
Rate: 633.27

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